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CNET First Look

Microsoft Surface Book i7: 3 things you need to know

Microsoft's laptop/tablet is back. What makes it different?

1:48 / 11 November 2016

Transcript

Three things you need to know about the new Microsoft Surface Book with Perfomance Base.
It's all about that base.
Microsoft's new Surface Book is like last year's.
A bold design that's somewhere between tablet and laptop.
With a detachable display and a base That has more serious computing power.
If you loved the surface books look last year, you're in luck.
If you thought it was weird, well nothing's really changed with it.
It has the same hinge with it's odd gap.
The same Microsoft pen which was included and the same Ports.
Thankfully, USB 3, an SD card slot, and no USB C.
But the whole package is nowhere near as thin and light as the Surface Pro 4.
This time, Microsoft amps up that performance in a slightly thicker base and has a A better battery, improved in video GeForce GTX 965 M graphics and a more powerful Intel core i7 processor.
It doesn't work with Surface Pro 4 however, but the idea is to swap bases and tops down the road.
Perhaps.
You can't buy that base on its own though.
It comes prepackaged with the top half.
Sorry, if you bought a first gen Surface Book, you're out of luck.
It's more expensive.
It finally feels like a higher end laptop.
You're paying for that privilege.
The Surface Book starts at 2399, with 256 gigabytes of storage, and 8 gigs of RAM.
It goes all the way up to 3299.
It's not a VR machine.
Microsoft wants to make everything about VR and mixed reality but the minimum specs for VR Gaming on a PC are higher than what the new book service but can provide.
So don't expect to plug in your Oculus Rift or HTC Vive but maybe down the road Microsoft will aim to make some of the artwork with this laptop Don't go buying the Surface for [INAUDIBLE] go somewhere else.
The new Surfacebook is a better computer and more a expensive one, but it's also more of a bump up to last year's than a totally new experience.

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